Political Players? Sovereign Wealth Funds' Investments in Central and Eastern Europe

Although there has been vivid academic debate as to what extent Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) are motivated by political reasons, it is rather clear that countries can use state-owned investment funds as a tool of their foreign policy. Even Barack Obama, during his initial presidential campaign in 2008 commented: “I am obviously concerned if these... sovereign wealth funds are motivated by more than just market consideration and that’s obviously a possibility”. This book looks at SWF activities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) to determine the main motives for SWF presence in CEE. Are the potential financial gains the only reason behind their investments? Are SWF activities in the region dangerous for the stability and security of the CEE countries? The book is pioneering analyses of SWFs behaviour in the region, based on empirical data collected from the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute Transaction Database, arguably the most comprehensive and authoritative resource tracking SWF investment behaviour globally.

Tomasz Kamiński, Introduction 7 Piotr Wiśniewski, Chapter 1. The Recent Investment Activity of Global Sovereign Wealth Funds 13 Tomasz Kamiński, Chapter 2. Political Significance of Sovereign Wealth Funds 25 Piotr Wiśniewski, Chapter 3. The Competitiveness of Central and Eastern European (CEE) Financial Markets 45 Marcin Obroniecki, Chapter 4. An overview of Sovereign Wealth Funds’ (SWF) investments in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) 61 Tomasz Kamiński, Tomasz Jurczyk, Chapter 5. Untapped Instrument. Sovereign Wealth Funds and Chinese policy toward the Central and Eastern European countries 69 Dariusz Urban, Chapter 6. The Political Implications of Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund investments in Eastern and Central Europe 93 Marcin Obroniecki, Chapter 7. The Political Significance of the Gulf Cooperation Countries’ Sovereign Wealth Funds’ Investments in Central and Eastern Europe 111 Conclusions 127 Appendices 131 Notes about authors 155